Which roles in your organisation should you consider outsourcing?

Unless you run a very big company, the chances are that you will turn to outsourcing for many of the services you need instead of keeping everything in-house. There can be significant benefits to your business if you outsource specific areas of work that are important but don't need to be managed or done by employees.

As a small business owner, you are in an enviable position to hire high-quality people without the necessity of putting them on the full-time payroll. The recession in the economy meant there was a downturn in hiring and thus many skilled specialists in a range of business areas who offered their services outside larger established businesses.

There are, therefore, a number of roles you could consider outsourcing and sound reasons for doing so. One major reason is that you are buying in expertise to support your core business activity, and it's more than likely that an outsourced task will be done far better than you or your staff could do, and much more cost-effectively.

Here are a few areas for you to look at.

Payroll

In a small business, dealing with payroll is going to take up someone's time, probably yours, and time spent dealing with the nuts and bolts of pay is time you're not spending on your core business activity. Payroll, and getting it right, is important of course, but you could easily outsource this, and dealing with the pay of other contractors you hire in for specific tasks by going to an umbrella company, which will take care of all those financial necessities for you. It takes away that weekly or monthly hassle so that you can devote more time to doing what you do best, delivering your products and services and working to grow your business.

IT

Let's face it, IT is, and has been for some time, a key driver in how successful a business is and can become. There are many individuals and small businesses that specialise in ITand it's one of the prime areas for outsourcing work. Unless you are techie yourself, you'll probably find it hard to navigate around all the things you need to provide on the IT front, and keeping an in-house specialist will probably be more expensive than hiring someone in when you want them. Designing and building a website should be done by experts to showcase what you do and provide, and you can have someone on call to sort out any IT glitches or help recommend new hardware and software.

Marketing

Your basic marketing can be put in the hands of an experienced marketing professional who understands the best ways to get your message across. As well as the traditional forms of marketing, such as newspaper, magazine or radio advertisements, a modern marketer will also develop social media outlets for you.

Outsourcing a variety of business functions can prove highly cost-effective, free up your time and provide you with the right expertise whenever you need it.